NCL Corporation Ltd. (“NCLC”) (the “Company” or “Norwegian”), a
subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH),
today announced that S&P Global Ratings (S&P) has recently
upgraded NCLC’s issuer credit rating and issue-level ratings.
NCLC’s issuer credit rating has been upgraded to B+, marking a
notable improvement in the Company’s creditworthiness. In addition,
S&P has raised the issue-level ratings on NCLC’s existing
secured and unsecured debt. The Company’s senior secured debt
ratings were raised to BB/BB- and its unsecured debt rating was
upgraded two notches to B.
S&P highlighted several factors for the
upgrade, including NCLC’s current forward-booked position,
increased capacity, occupancy recovery, and higher pricing
providing good revenue and cash flow visibility for 2024. In
addition, S&P noted that the Company’s leverage will benefit
from higher revenue, EBITDA, and cash as it generates a full year
of operations from its 2023 ship deliveries, without incurring
incremental ship delivery debt in 2024.
Further enhancing its financial position, on
March 7, 2024, the Company successfully completed the refinancing
of its $650 million backstop commitment. This commitment has been
refinanced from a secured to an unsecured commitment, and as part
of this refinancing, the Company has repaid its $250 million 9.75%
senior secured notes due 2028, eliminating its highest interest
rate debt.
“The upgraded ratings are an important
recognition of the strength of our business and our ability to
reduce leverage,” commented Mark A. Kempa, executive vice president
and chief financial officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
He continued, “Our recent refinancing, which reduces interest costs
while releasing the related collateral, is a clear demonstration of
our commitment to de-levering and improving our balance sheet.”
About Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NCLH)
is a leading global cruise company which operates Norwegian Cruise
Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. With a
combined fleet of 32 ships and approximately 66,500 berths, NCLH
offers itineraries to approximately 700 destinations worldwide.
NCLH has five additional ships scheduled for delivery across its
three brands, which will add approximately 16,000 berths to its
fleet. To learn more, visit www.nclhltd.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning
Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements, estimates or projections contained in
this release are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of
the U.S. federal securities laws intended to qualify for the safe
harbor from liability established by the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements
of historical facts contained, or incorporated by reference, in
this release, including, without limitation, those regarding our
business strategy, financial position, results of operations,
plans, prospects, actions taken or strategies being considered with
respect to our liquidity position, valuation and appraisals of our
assets and objectives of management for future operations
(including those regarding expected fleet additions, our
expectations regarding the impact of macroeconomic conditions and
recent global events, our expectations regarding cruise voyage
occupancy, operational position, demand for voyages, plans or goals
for our sustainability program and decarbonization efforts, our
expectations for future cash flows and profitability, financing
opportunities and extensions, and efforts to reduce operating
expenses and capital expenditures) are forward-looking statements.
Many, but not all, of these statements can be found by looking for
words like “expect,” “anticipate,” “goal,” “project,” “plan,”
“believe,” “seek,” “will,” “may,” “forecast,” “estimate,” “intend,”
“future” and similar words. Forward-looking statements do not
guarantee future performance and may involve risks, uncertainties
and other factors which could cause our actual results, performance
or achievements to differ materially from the future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied in those
forward-looking statements. Examples of these risks, uncertainties
and other factors include, but are not limited to the impact of:
adverse general economic factors, such as fluctuating or increasing
levels of interest rates, inflation, unemployment, underemployment
and the volatility of fuel prices, declines in the securities and
real estate markets, and perceptions of these conditions that
decrease the level of disposable income of consumers or consumer
confidence; implementing precautions in coordination with
regulators and global public health authorities to protect the
health, safety and security of guests, crew and the communities we
visit and to comply with related regulatory restrictions; our
indebtedness and restrictions in the agreements governing our
indebtedness that require us to maintain minimum levels of
liquidity and be in compliance with maintenance covenants and
otherwise limit our flexibility in operating our business,
including the significant portion of assets that are collateral
under these agreements; our ability to work with lenders and others
or otherwise pursue options to defer, renegotiate, refinance or
restructure our existing debt profile, near-term debt amortization,
newbuild related payments and other obligations and to work with
credit card processors to satisfy current or potential future
demands for collateral on cash advanced from customers relating to
future cruises; our need for additional financing or financing to
optimize our balance sheet, which may not be available on favorable
terms, or at all, and our outstanding exchangeable notes and any
future financing which may be dilutive to existing shareholders;
the unavailability of ports of call; future increases in the price
of, or major changes, disruptions or reduction in, commercial
airline services; changes involving the tax and environmental
regulatory regimes in which we operate, including new regulations
aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions; the accuracy of any
appraisals of our assets; our success in controlling operating
expenses and capital expenditures; trends in, or changes to, future
bookings and our ability to take future reservations and receive
deposits related thereto; adverse events impacting the security of
travel, or customer perceptions of the security of travel, such as
terrorist acts, armed conflict, such as Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine or the Israel-Hamas war, or threats thereof, acts of
piracy, and other international events; public health crises,
including the COVID-19 pandemic, and their effect on the ability or
desire of people to travel (including on cruises); adverse
incidents involving cruise ships; our ability to maintain and
strengthen our brand; breaches in data security or other
disturbances to our information technology systems and other
networks or our actual or perceived failure to comply with
requirements regarding data privacy and protection; changes in fuel
prices and the type of fuel we are permitted to use and/or other
cruise operating costs; mechanical malfunctions and repairs, delays
in our shipbuilding program, maintenance and refurbishments and the
consolidation of qualified shipyard facilities; the risks and
increased costs associated with operating internationally; our
inability to recruit or retain qualified personnel or the loss of
key personnel or employee relations issues; impacts related to
climate change and our ability to achieve our climate-related or
other sustainability goals; our inability to obtain adequate
insurance coverage; pending or threatened litigation,
investigations and enforcement actions; volatility and disruptions
in the global credit and financial markets, which may adversely
affect our ability to borrow and could increase our counterparty
credit risks, including those under our credit facilities,
derivatives, contingent obligations, insurance contracts and new
ship progress payment guarantees; any further impairment of our
trademarks, trade names or goodwill; our reliance on third parties
to provide hotel management services for certain ships and certain
other services; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates;
our expansion into new markets and investments in new markets and
land-based destination projects; overcapacity in key markets or
globally; and other factors set forth under “Risk Factors” in our
most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on
Form 10-Q and subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The above examples are not exhaustive and new risks
emerge from time to time. There may be additional risks that we
consider immaterial or which are unknown. Such forward-looking
statements are based on our current beliefs, assumptions,
expectations, estimates and projections regarding our present and
future business strategies and the environment in which we expect
to operate in the future. These forward-looking statements speak
only as of the date made. We expressly disclaim any obligation or
undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any
forward-looking statement to reflect any change in our expectations
with regard thereto or any change of events, conditions or
circumstances on which any such statement was based, except as
required by law.
Investor Relations & Media Contact
Sarah Inmon(786) 812-
3233InvestorRelations@nclcorp.comNCLHmedia@nclcorp.com
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